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Chandler Dental gives back

POTH -- For years now, Dr. Bryce Chandler and his staff have made great efforts to give back to the local communities. From “tooth talks” with preschoolers to free services for those in need, Chandler and his team are truly friends of the community. Chandler’s outreach work continued back in May, as he decided to try something new, and offered free custom mouthpieces to the student athletes of Falls City.

“Over my 24 years of sports participation, I had seven concussions and multiple occasions where my front teeth were on the other end of a basketball elbow,” Chandler said. “I contacted a few local schools and worked on seeing if we could help support their athletes with custom guards.”

In addition to the concern over concussions, Chandler explained that his office treated several kids with thousands of dollars in emergency costs last year to repair teeth broken during sporting activities.

“If we can protect a few of these families from the expense and trauma of that, it is an expense that we are happy to make,” he said.

Because Chandler Dental Center is a full-service office and can do most things in-house for less, Chandler felt this would be a great way to “give back.”

Chandler, a 1992 graduate of Floresville High School, reached out to several area schools, and Falls City Athletic Director Steve Marbach was quick to jump on the offer. Gerald and Debo Eckel of Lyssy & Eckel Feeds also got on board, allowing the use of their facility to host the event. Wiatrek’s Meat Market helped out with sausage and fajitas.

Chandler said about 30 student athletes went out for the fitting, and that the mouth guards are being provided at no cost to the kids or the school. Helping Chandler with the fittings were Dr. Randall Chandler, Dr. Lauren Barbaro, and Dr. Colin Barbaro. Most of his staff were also on hand, volunteering their Saturday to help the kids.

“The football mouthpieces being made for our Falls City athletes are the exact same as those worn by many professional football, basketball, and baseball players,” Chandler said.

Chandler said he hopes to expand the program in the future, but was happy they could help out the kids in Falls City this year. He knows it is a step in the right direction to help reduce the chance of concussions and sports-related dental injury.

“It is our goal to provide them the best protection available in an attempt to help decrease some of the injuries that go along with today’s contact-heavy sports,” Chandler said.

Chandler Dental Center is located at 11021 Old Corpus Christi Hwy. in San Antonio.

The Academy for Sports Dentistry strongly supports and encourages a mandate for the use of a properly fitted mouth guard in all collision and contact sports. It further encourages the use of a custom-fabricated mouth guard made over a dental cast, and delivered under the supervision of a dentist. For football, a custom mouth guard is around $350. For basketball, it is about $225.